*Virginia’s gas tax headed up over Internet impasse (” Virginia’s gas tax will almost certainly increase Jan. 1, ratcheting up about 45 percent because of last year’s landmark transportation funding deal and a congressional unwillingness to crack down on Internet sales tax collections.”)

On behalf of Americans United for Change, Hart Research Associates conducted a national survey on the topic of President Obama’s executive action on immigration. The survey was conducted among 800 likely 2016 voters from November 19 to 20, 2014, and has a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points. This memo reviews the survey’s key findings.

Key Findings

Ø Voters respond favorably by an overwhelming 39-point margin to executive action by President Obama that would focus immigration enforcement efforts on threats to national security and public safety while allowing some illegal immigrants to stay and work in the United States (67% favorable, 28% unfavorable). Support is broad, incorporating a majority of voters in every region of the country, among both men and women, and in states won by both Barack Obama (67% favorable) and Mitt Romney (65% favorable). Younger voters under age 35 express particularly strong support (72%), but more than 60% feel favorable in every age cohort.

Executive action receives support from 91% of Democrats and 67% of political independents. While a narrow 51% majority of Republicans oppose executive action (41% favor), this is driven mainly by a 34-point margin of opposition among Tea Party Republicans (30% favor, 64% oppose). Among non-Tea Party Republicans opinion is more divided, with 47% in favor and 45% opposed.

o Description of executive action: The action would direct immigration enforcement officials to focus on threats to national security and public safety, and not on deporting otherwise law-abiding immigrants. Immigrants who are parents of children who are legal US residents could qualify to stay and work temporarily in the United States, without being deported, if they have lived in the United States for at least five years, pay taxes, and pass a criminal background check.

Ø Many individual elements of the executive action are very popular with voters:

o Allow undocumented immigrants who are parents of children or young adults living legally in the United States to stay in the United States without being deported (66% favorable, 28% unfavorable);

o Expand the DACA program that provides temporary legal status and work permits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children (63% favorable, 27% unfavorable);

Ø Republican leaders are challenging President Obama’s legal authority to take this executive action aggressively. The survey results show that Democrats have the better of this debate, with voters agreeing by a 10-point margin (51% to 41%) that the president does have legal authority to act. Independents agree that the president is acting lawfully by an 18-point margin (54% to 36%). This is the debate respondents heard:

Democrats say the only way to fix our broken immigration system once and for all is for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation. But in the meantime, the president has the legal authority to set enforcement priorities to deport drug dealers and smugglers instead of immigrants who have lived and worked here for years and are contributing to America. (51% agree)

Republicans say that the president has no legal right to start rewriting the nation’s immigration laws-only Congress has the constitutional authority to do that. A president can’t just decide to stop enforcing the laws he doesn’t like, and legalizing millions of illegal immigrants is an abuse of presidential power. (41% agree)

Ø Voters strongly reject aggressive strategies being considered by Republicans to block executive action, including a government shutdown and impeachment. By a 48-point margin (72% oppose, 24% favor) voters oppose a strategy of Republicans shutting down the government until the president agrees to end his executive action. While Tea party Republicans favor a shutdown strategy by 61% to 36%, Republicans who do not identify with the Tea Party oppose a shutdown by 62% to 32%. And by a 31-point margin, voters oppose impeaching the president and removing him from office in response to this executive action (63% oppose, 32% favor).

Ø After hearing a detailed description of the provisions of the executive action, and a balanced debate over the policy, voters support it by an even larger 69% to 27% majority. Voters also say, after learning about executive action and hearing the debate, that they have more confidence in President Obama (44%) than in Republicans in Congress (35%) to deal with immigration (independents trust Obama by an even larger, 21-point margin, 47% to 26%).

ARLINGTON – House Democratic Leader David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) has appointed Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington) to serve as the Campaign and Political Chair of the House Democratic Caucus for the upcoming 2015 Election cycle.

Next year the entire General Assembly will be up for reelection. Of the one hundred Members of the Virginia House of Delegates, sixty-eight are Republicans while thirty-two are Democrats. In contrast, the State Senate is much more evenly divided with twenty-one Republicans and nineteen Democrats.

“I am honored that the House Democratic leadership has chosen me to help lead our efforts to elect more Democrats to the House of Delegates” said Delegate Lopez. “Virginians deserve to have a House of Delegates that truly reflects their values and priorities. Unfortunately, from transportation and transit to the environment to education to choice to health care and economic development – far too often the Republican supermajority in the House fails to represent mainstream Virginians. We simply cannot afford two more years of a veto-proof Republican majority in the House of Delegates.”

“Throughout his first two terms as a Member of the House of Delegates, Delegate Lopez has shown extraordinary leadership, passion, and a tireless work ethic that will serve him well as the new Campaign and Political Chair for the House Democratic Caucus” said Minority Leader Toscano. “I look forward to working with him to strengthen and grow our caucus for many years to come.”

Secretary Hagel has led the Department of Defense through an extremely challenging time in our nation’s history, including a severely constrained fiscal environment. He has been a strong advocate for military servicemembers and their families, ensuring the U.S. Armed Forces have the resources they need to respond to contingencies at home and around the globe. He also played a significant role this year in building a robust international coalition to combat ISIL and has helped lay the groundwork for a smooth transition in Afghanistan. I also thank Secretary Hagel for standing up for our nation’s veterans at every opportunity.

Jim B

He must have been doing a terrible job since the Obama Admin.has taken so much heat about everything that has been going on in the middle east. Don’t worry he will have a book blaming Obama soon.

The father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) went on an anti-progressive tirade last week after being asked about the issue of abortion, and called for preachers to take the “Christian nation” of America back from secular humanists.

“The blood of 57 million babies is crying out to God,” Rafael Cruz said during an interview with bishop E.W. Jackson. “Just like the blood of Abel cried out to God. But you know, what we need to do is turn the tables on the progressives.”

Progressives use phrases like the “war on women,” Cruz continued, but “the real war on women” is the abortion of millions of female fetuses.

[…]

“We need to be preaching that ‘He who does not work does not eat,'” he continued, citing a Bible verse used in article twelve of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. “And we need to be preaching that a dependence society is a society that becomes a slave to government.”

“We live in the land of plenty. We really are in the promised land. But, you know, God gave this land to America so this land could become a beacon to the gospel, and just a model for the world of what a Christian nation is like. We are losing that witness because we are allowing secular humanism to pervade society, to pervade our schools.”

Cruz cited Common Core as an example of the secular humanism invading American culture, claiming it “borders on pornography, with their so-called sex education.”

“We need to take back society,” he concluded. “I encourage Christians, pastors, run for school office, for school board, run for city council, run for mayor, run for state rep, run for state senate, run for every office in the land.”

I listened to the audio, and EW Jackson was almost beside himself with glee at how great Rafael Cruz, how much he agreed with him, etc. Don’t ever forget, EW Jackson was Virginia Republicans’ nominee for Lt. Governor of our state in 2013. That’s who the “work across the aisle” people like Mark Warner want to work with? Seriously?!?